Week 39

This had better be it. I swear child. 

Week 39

·  Size of baby:  He measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.)

Weight gain: 139 Today.    
·  Symptoms experienced: Contractions.. Sent over to L&D again for monitoring. They were picking up contractions like crazy that only served to get me excited. And not to get him out. 2cm, 80% effaced.

·  How I feel: I have hit uncomfortable. All the time. Especially laying down or trying to relax. My stomach is just too big. I am also getting down heartened about him ever coming out and as a result have been cheat eating all week.
·  What I've been craving: Donut holes. Anything I am not supposed to have. Pizza.  

·  What I miss: not getting super excited every time I have a contraction because we are so close to the end. Now it’s like “is this it?” every time. And guess what? It’s not.   
·  Best moment: Surprise date night to CPK and going to the movies last night with the hubs on our most likely last ever kid free time.
·  Items purchased: Donut holes. Lots. Parking at all my appointments. Nothing exciting.  

Near The End

That’s correct. We are almost there. This stubborn child will not consent to come early, despite my pleading and negotiating. I guess I’m a good cocoon or something. We are 39w2 today and fully within an acceptable range for his debut. We thought for (almost) sure he was coming on Saturday night… I was having contractions every 3-5 min that lasted 45-60 seconds… for 5 hours. But when I went to try and get some sleep and see how they went. I fell asleep and woke up Sunday morning with nada. It may have been the fault of the castor oil I tried. But it was almost exciting. Ps. Castor oil=failure. It did clean out my system… which I will admit is kind of nice seeing as it gets difficult to do while pregnant. Other than that effect and contractions… baby A is staying put. Come on child. I have been pregnant for 66 weeks out of the past 74 weeks. That’s 15/17 months Yah. I'm done. And now that I am down to the final week, it feels like these last couple days are longer than the last year and half. Patience is not a virtue I possess. And we are nearing Max’s birthday. He was born February 11^th, 2012. His first birthday would be in a couple weeks and I don’t want to be too overwhelmed with a newborn that I forget it or we can’t do anything to make it special. I just want to fast foward until A is out and I can kiss his little toes and look at his little face. I want my hubby to be able to hold him and see his son. I also want to be comfortable in my own body again.  These last few weeks of sleeping has been uncomfortable, verging on painful. I am really close to complaining. But not quite yet. If he goes past his due date I will go into full fledged complaining. And whining. 

His room is done. completely. And I am really proud of it, so I thought I'd share. 

Week 38!

Hopefully this is my last one...!?

Week 38

·  Size of baby:  He now weighs 7.? pounds (like a leek) and is more than 19 1/2 inches long.

Weight gain: 137 Monday... will I make 140?   
·  Symptoms experienced: Contractions.. Weird sloshy feeling when I roll over.. and hurting ribs when he moves or tries to get comfortable. At least one of us is able to. Painful cervical check. (Soft..-2 station, 15% and 1-2cm). And mucus plug leakage. Clear, and slowly in pieces. Nothingt hat makes me get my hopes up.

·  How I feel: Impatient. I am ready for him even if he isn’t. These cushy lodgings are going to expire soon bub and you’ll have to make it in the tough real world sooner or later. Sooner. Daddy and I vote sooner.
·  What I've been craving: Donuts and cereal. Chick fil a. Elmer Fudge Cookies.

·  What I miss: Sleeping longer than 3 hours before my trip to the bathroom. Which I can now do with my eyes closed in a sort of human-bumper-car kind of way. And being able to lay down and not feel the super heavy pull of his weight.  
·  Best moment: Getting his room all squared away, having our house professionally deep cleaned, and having the car detailed. I am ready. All my checklists are checked. Now it’s a waiting game.    
·  Items purchased: Oh man. The week of purchases. After my baby shower, I got so many things! And then went home and ordered the rest. And got more from my nanny mom. He now has an ergo, a bjorn, a swing, bouncer, changing pad, more clothes, video monitor and snuza, blankets and quilts, and burp clothes, books galore, an exersaucer, a Johnny Jumper, and so many more things. I still have to order a pump.. but luckily its 100% covered by insurance!

He has been passing his 2x a week NSTs. Today he barely scraped by. Decided to sleep for the first 20 minutes and then go crazy. And all the while I was having frequent contractions that he was reacting to. The nurse said those contractions weren’t anything (yah ok ouch) and that real labor ones are different. Boo. I keep getting all excited with each one hoping it turns into more. So keep up the power of positive thinking! Lets will this baby out of here ASAP. My Dr. estimated a 7.5 lb baby and if you have seen my pictures you will know that is not going to fit well.

Shower Baby A With Love And Presents!

 We Had A Baby Shower!

I did it. Passed the major milestone of Baby Shower. We waited until week 38.. which was a bit un nerving.. but totally worth it. The shower invite is how majority of the extended family found out, and so we pushed it back until we were pretty much waiting anyday for baby A to appear. It went so well! My wonderful Mother-in-law and SIL planned it and threw it and it was a success. 10am brunch theme… full of delicious things like quiche, hash brown casserole, and deviled eggs among other breakfast foods. I gave myself the day off with checking and ate. Everything. Yum. Games were really fun and non lame. Two sea themed ones that went with my shower.. Count the sea creatures fastest and correctly, and then name 30 sea animals in teams of two. Those were fun and light ice breaking games, then my favorite: teams of four… each lady had to have her purse. We sat in a huge circle with a chair in the middle and my MIL read off an item and the team had to find it in one of their purses and get it to the chair first. There was much throwing and jumping, some falling, lots of laughs and screams. Some were really obscure items too. A Walmart receipt, prescription meds, a paperclip, three lip glosses, etc. I sat out and watched my highly competitive friends and family duel over purse contents. Winners were declared and then presents. They went much better than I thought they would.. seeing as being the center of attention is not my favorite. I got a lot of loot from everyone for baby A and I cant wait to use some of it when he gets here any day. Hear that baby. A.n.y.d.a.y. Come on. After the shower we helped straighten up and then drove back down to our house to unload and set up more of his nursery. It’s a pigsty currently with boxes and laundry everywhere… but we have a cleaning lady coming on Thursday and I want something to do while she is working so I will be in A’s room getting it all put together. Then he and I are going to have a serious talk about his impending eviction.

Week 37... FULL TERM!

Week 37
·  Size of baby:  He weighs 6.14 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard) and is officially considered full term!!

Weight gain: 132 on the scale yesterday. I am not really moving up or down anymore with this pregnancy. I doubt I will make it to 135.  
·  Symptoms experienced: My silly little man keeps showing heart decelerations during contractions on the NSTs and that’s no bueno. And contractions. Non regular. Laying on my side is becoming considerably less comfortable and a little painful when I roll and stretch the muscles that have been pulled by his weight. And using the bathroom every 3 hours. Especially fun at night.

·  How I feel: Tired Tired Tired. All these dr appointments are draining. 4 this week! Two are (to me) early…. I have to be there at 845 and then I sit for the NST and then they send me to L&D until 1ish. This has happened after both my NSTs so far... let’s see if the trend continues with the next one on Friday. I am beyond excited he is now full term and can come whenever he wants (please wait until after my baby showerA).
·  What I've been craving: Water. My fluids measure at 19.8.. so I am not dehydrated. Just thirsty. Hubby had soda the other day and I was really jealous. I want Barqs. And cereal, yum.

·  What I miss: Not setting a timer when I start eating.
·  Best moment: Our growth scan on Monday showed a beautiful little man measuring on track and not big because of GD!! We got to see him swallow, suck on his lip, stick his tongue out, and move his fists into his face. AND the tech said it looks like she can see a little hair! HE WONT BE BALD!!!! I have gotten to see his on ultrasound 3 times already this week and its only Wednesday. He’s beautiful!   
·  Items purchased: Nothing this week. We assembled the kitchen cart we ordered and set up Hubs new Keurig :)

Week 36 And My Trip To L&D

Week 36

·  Size of baby:  He now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long.

Weight gain: 135 yesterday! Slowly gaining!   
·  Symptoms experienced: Contractions… Weird caveman noises when I try to get myself into a sitting positon… and fun of all funs: a yeast infection! Yaaaaaay.

·  How I feel: SO DONE! We thought there might be a chance baby A joined us yesterday and that was exciting. Finding out not so much… not as fun. Though I am relieved he has longer to bake.
·  What I've been craving: Water.. Pretty much just water.   

·  What I miss: Being comfortable. And sleeping in. now I have appointments three times a week and two are early. Which makes me tired all the time.
·  Best moment: Listening to A’s heartbeat for over an hour at the dr. and finally picking out his going home outfit and setting it aside.   
·  Items purchased: We ordered nothing this week. My baby shower is next weekend and after that we have to crack down and buy some necessities. Like diapers. And wipes.

I had my first ever NST yesterday.. “oh hubby I want you to come because it’s the first one, no.. it should only take about 30 minutes. You can go into work a little late.” Four hours at the dr later he gets to go in for a half day. Whoops. We started the day going to an early pre appt breakfast at a bread company near the hospital and then heading to the dr office. They called us back after 15 minutes of waiting and used the ultrasound to check his position (head down) and fluid levels (17.2) which were perfect. We were then moved to the other room where they put something that looked like bump-earphones on my stomach to measure his heartrate and my contractions. I had a clicker I would press every time he moved so they could see how it affected his heart. He moved so much he kept sliding out from under where the disk was measuring and it would cause the heartbeat to stop being picked up by the machine. At one point he had moved and it picked up my heartbeat. This made the nice even chart of his heartrate look like a heart attack patient. And there were black lines everywhere from him moving. Nurses kept coming in and adjusting the monitor and asking how I was doing… and one seemed really concerned that it picked up my heartbeat because it could have been his and it might mean he is in distress. I pretty much knew this wasn’t the case, but whatev. This meant longer monitoring. Then another nurse comes in and asks if I have been feeling contractions. Answer: yes. And the machine is picking up regular contractions closer than 5 minutes apart. On the pain scale I gave them a 4 or so, so not bad… but added with his acrobatic heartrate it meant we were being sent over to L&D for closer monitoring over a longer time. We walked over to L&D and I changed into one of those really attractive hospital gowns and then was hooked up to the same monitor after my vitals were taken, along with my blood sugar. This was also the one day my phone wasn’t charged and I had forgotten my kit. I stayed hooked up for more than an hour.. more like 2 because they were looking at contractions. I had a clicker to press for each one, and they were interested to see how A would react to a ‘mock labor’ environment. He passed with flying colors, which is a huge relief. My cervix was checked at the beginning and end of my stint on the inside and fortunately showed that I was not dilating at the rate I was contracting. So we were sprung. And told to keep an eye on contractions etc. I am so thankful hubs was with me and I didn’t have to go through all that alone. Though the hour or so where there was a chance A could come that day were heady… I really want to see his little face. Its better he marinates for a little bit more. At least until after my shower :)